Home Taxidermy for Pleasure and Profit / A Guide for Those Who Wish to Prepare and Mount Animals, Birds, Fish, Reptiles, etc., for Home, Den, or Office Decoration

by Albert Burton Farnham

In case wing spread is wanted the primary feathers are not disturbed but that part of the wing is cleaned from a slit in the under side of the wing. All but the smallest birds should have the tip joint of the wing slit open on the under side and some form of preservative worked in the opening. Specimens the size of a crow and larger should have a cut made in the bottom of the foot and the tendons of the lower leg drawn out with an awl, and in the case of very large birds it may be necessary to soak the unfeathered part of the legs and feet in a pan of strong pickle for 24 hours, to prevent decay and damage from insects. Our bird is now entirely ready for the application of such preservatives as we may be using.

The main principle in the preserving of skins may be stated thus: All skins must be removed and cleaned of flesh so the preservative may be applied to every part of the inner surface, where it will act directly on the roots of the hair or feathers.

The preservative applied, we must decide on the next step, whether it is to be mounted at once, in a short time, or laid away indefinitely as a scientific skin.

If we have to lay it away until tomorrow, put a little cotton inside to prevent the inner surface sticking together, wrap in a damp cloth and unless the weather is very hot it will be all right.

If very hot or it is necessary to lay it aside for some days, the inner side should be well coated with the carbolic and glycerine mixture. As a scientific skin it should be made up at once, tagged with a full set of measurements taken before skinning and laid aside to dry. These measurements are not needed if we mount it at once, as the skinned body is at hand for comparison, but the sex, date, locality and collector's name should be attached to the completed specimen.

Alligators and the lizard family are skinned like the other four-footed species, as are snakes and fish, with the exception they have no limb bones to be cleaned and preserved. Fish are better opened along one side than the central line of the body.

Reptile skins if not put in the pickle jar had better be packed in salt after poisoning as when entirely dry they are practically ruined. Skins of fish are best kept in either a saturated solution of salt (water with salt added until no more will dissolve), alcohol or formaldehyde solution. Whatever method is used the delicate colors will vanish and unless you can have a fresh specimen at hand when mounting it you should make the best color record you are able. This is true to some extent at least of all coverings of fur, feathers, or scales, and the stronger the light the more damage. I have seen a mounted mink placed in direct sunshine, bleached to a drab and the yellow feathers on a 'flicker faded almost white.

In order to preserve turtles, after killing with chloroform preferably, it is necessary in the case of the box or land turtles to cut a square opening in the under shell through which the body may be removed and the legs and neck skinned.

The water species can have the lower shell detached from the upper at the side and after cutting the skin around the rear two-thirds this shell is turned over to the front and the skinning and cleaning proceeded with.